


let me love you

by tsunamiroll



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Angst, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Mark Lee (NCT) is Whipped, Minor Huang Ren Jun/Lee Jeno/Na Jaemin, NCT Dream - Freeform, NCT Dream Ensemble-centric, Non-Explicit, Pining, Secret Crush, Soft Lee Donghyuck | Haechan, Suggestive Themes, engineering major!mark, music major!haechan, socially awkward mark, soft jeno/renjun/jaemin
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-03
Updated: 2019-02-03
Packaged: 2019-10-21 21:02:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17649809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tsunamiroll/pseuds/tsunamiroll
Summary: mark has been in love with donghyuck for years, and he's worried he doesn't have enough patience left.





	let me love you

**Author's Note:**

> this is the first part of a twoshot that i started writing as a oneshot, but then it grew. it's been a while since i wrote something with a lot of passion, so i hope you guys like it!

The sound of an opening door and a  loud groan was what announced that Donghyuck had returned from his class. Donghyuck kicked off his shoes before collapsing on his bed across from Mark. Mark chuckled, a reprimand forming on the tip of his tongue.

"Shut. Up." The discontent was evident in Dognhyuck's voice, and Mark laughed.

"You didn't even give me a chance to say anything! I could have been about to say we should go for boba!" Donghyuck raised his head and gave Mark an unimpressed look before dropping it back down on the pillow.

"You know, you could just maintain a normal sleep schedule instead of the mess you're doing right now and you wouldn't be this tired?" 

"My dysfunctional sleep schedule is working just fine, thanks." Came the muffled response from Donghyuck. Mark knew that Dongnyuck knew that he should change it, but he also knew that Donghyuck was too stubborn to admit it. Those were the side effects of knowing one another for more than half their lives. 

"Go to your class now, I'm going to take my nap. Wake me up when you get back." Donghyuck said, shooing Mark towards the door as he made to take off his shirt and get comfortable in the bed.

Mark averted his eyes and grabbed his messenger bag, swinging it over his shoulder as he left. "Sleep well, Hyuck."

 

* * *

 

Mark sighed as he walked back from his class. The sun was low in the sky, with the first dark shades of pink painting themselves across the horizon. Mark squinted at the dipping sun, wondering when the sun would start setting later. He hated this winter schedule that the sun decided it was on.

He shouldered his messenger back before entering his quad building, his mind wandering back to the lecture he came from. He scrunched his eyebrows in thought as he pushed his dorm room door open, completely focused on the topics they covered in class. He would have to spend a while going over the notes later.

Grumbling coming from the other side of the room made cleared Mark's mind. He made his way over to the passed out Donghyuck, dumping his stuff on the floor as he went, and sat down on the bed next to him.

He sat like that for a minute, listening to Donghyuck's slow breathing. His gaze drifted across his face, the setting sun from outside casting a gold glow over him. Soon his gaze floated lower, running across the baggy shirt (was that one of Mark's?) that lay in a pool around him. Donghyuck shifted, the fabric sliding down and exposing the tops of his collarbones.

Mark swallowed.

Mark looked away before breaking the moment and shoving Donghyuck's shoulder to wake him up. He groaned and tried to move away from Mark's arm.

"Come on Hyuck, you've got a class in thirty minutes." Mark said, getting off the bed and to the other side of the dorm room. "If you get up now I'll buy a snack for you."

Donghyuck poked his head up from the pillow. "A snack? Yeah, okay I'll be there." He crawled out of the pile of blankets that had somehow made its way from Mark's bed to Donghyuck's. Mark huffed out a laugh, a brief flicker of warmth flashing through him as he watched Donghyuck almost fall off the bed when he tried to get off. He squashed it down, not wanting to acknowledge it yet.

"Hurry up." Mark pushed the door open and stepped out, hoping that the threat to leave Donghyuck would get him up and out faster. He had been late to too many of his classes because of sleeping, and Mark didn't want this to become yet another one of those times.

His plan worked, with Donghyuck pushing past him in the doorway and running down the hallway towards the mess hall. 

"Who needs to hurry up now?" Donghyuck laughed as he slowed down at the end of the hallway and looked over his shoulder at Mark, and he couldn't stop the subsequent burst of warmth that made his toes curl. Donghyuck's smile was blinding, his eyes shining with joy and happiness, and Mark just wanted to... he wanted to run over to him and kiss him.

Donghyuck watched Mark over his shoulder, his chest heaving ever so slightly from the sprint down the hallway. Mark's eyes were captivated by the way his chest rose and fell, the slightly loose shirt he was wearing covering up what Mark knew was a fit body underneath.

Mark opened his mouth to answer, but the words were stuck in his throat. Donghyuck's joy broke, concern taking over his features. Donghyuck jogged over to him, a questioning look in his eyes. Mark started when Donghyuck reached out and took his hand in his own, the warmth from his fingers seeping into Mark's skin and making another kind of warmth rise in his chest. Mark's eyes snapped into focus on Donghyuck's face. "Hey hyung... you good?"

"Uhm... yeah." He gently removed Donghyuck's hand from his and dropped his gaze, taking deliberate strides to put distance between them. He tried for normality with a shaky "You're going to be late, Hyuck," before he ran away to the mess hall. He didn't look back.

 

* * *

 

Mark ambled across campus, with the goal of coffee and meeting Donghyuck ringing in his mind. It had been a week since Mark had run away from him, but luckily Donghyuck didn't seem affected at all. They fell back into their usual cycle of teasing and reprimanding, but Mark was always having to brush away the thought of "what if this was something more."

Donghyuck had texted Mark a little while ago to meet him at their favourite cafe, knowing that both of their schedules were free. They hadn't gone for coffee in a while since Donghyuck had had to finish a paper and Mark didn't like going their without Donghyuck.

Mark pushed into the store, the little bell above it jingling to let everyone know that he had entered. The shriek that accompanied his entrance made him freeze for a second.

He forgot Chenle worked here-

"MARK HYUNG!~" A blur of pastel purple barreled into him, and he tried his very best to not immediately cringe away from the overexcited boy and curl into himself.

"Hey Chenle-" He gasped out after he was let go. He steadied himself against the doorway which he was  _still_  standing in, and stepped fully into the shop. Chenle stepped away and Mark was finally able to take a deep breath in. He liked the coffee shop for a few reasons: his friends worked there, Donghyuck liked it, and it smelled heavenly.

The smell of vanilla and caramel washed over him, and he could feel himself relax into the environment easily enough.

"Hey Mark! Nice of you to finally show up again." A saccharine sweet voice rang out, and Mark rolled his eyes. Mark faced the source of the voice, looking at Jaemin with a nonchalant smile playing at his lips.

"It's a wonder you're here instead of cuddling with your boyfriends." His words had the desired effect as he saw Jaemin's ears go slightly pink. Another head poked out of the staff door and Mark let out a bark of laughter at the irony.

"Who says we have to be in our dorm to be cuddling?" Jeno said as he emerged from the staff room, Renjun following behind him. Their hair was mussed up, and Mark was definitely going to overlook the wet sheen of their lips. He didn't want to think about that.

Mark rolled his eyes and headed towards the cash register to place his order.

"Hey Mark hyung... what do you want today? Or will you wait for Donghyuck?" Jisung was the angel of this establishment, with his wide, innocent eyes and soft voice. Mark's lips were just lifting up into a gentle smile, but he didn't get a chance to fully manifest it before someone shoved him aside.

"That's Donghyuck _-hyung_ to you, Jisung-ah." Mark couldn't stop the surprised laugh that left him even as he rubbed his side.

Said angel  of the establishment smiled devilishly before ringing up the order that Donghyuck barked at him. Thank god Mark was Jisung's favourite hyung, he could get really creepy sometimes.

Mark slipped his hands into his pockets as Donghyuck and Jaemin started to yell gossip at eachother, his emotions halfway between exasperation and affection.

"Hyung, you are so whipped." Mark glared at Jisung over the two bobas that he was sliding across the counter. He took it back, Jisung was nowhere near being an angel.

He didn't bother to reply to the comment, instead popping the straws through the plastic lids of the drink and picking them up. He nudged Donghyuck beside him, trying to see if he would be able to pick up any of his and Jaemin's current conversation. Donghyuck didn't even pause his rant to Jaemin as he turned and took the more colourful boba with a quick grin.

Donghyuck always put half a million things in his drinks, and he knew it annoyed Mark. Mark would choose his matcha milk tea with plain boba over Donghyuck's ever changing tea with poppers, boba, whipped cream, and caramel. He remembered the first time they had gotten boba together, when they were both in middle school, and Donghyuck had convinced Mark to order the same thing as him.

It had turned out disastrous for Mark, to say the least. Some perfectly good brain cells died that day...

"Hey Hyuck, you heard of that party that Johnny is throwing?" Mark could barely keep in the sigh that came with the sentence Jaemin uttered. He somehow knew of everything that was happening on campus, and he also happened to know that parties were irresistible to Donghyuck.

'No, I didn't? Send me the details though, we're going. Right?" He turned to Mark with the barely there question, although he already knew the answer.

Well, Donghyuck wasn't wrong.  _Someone_ had to be there to drive Donghyuck home if he got wasted.

"And here I was thinking I could get some quality sleep time on my only free Fridaythis semester." He lamented sarcastically. It only made Donghyuck's smile morph into a pout.

"Mark hyung, plea-se." He drew out the word, making a sad and Mark rolled his eyes.

"Fine, but we're not staying long." Donghyuck's face brightened immediately, and he turned back to Jaemin.

The other boy had already whipped out his phone, typing what Mark assumed would be the address of the party furiously into it. Donghyuck's phone beeped in his front pocket, and he flashed a mischievous smile towards Mark. Mark mock-groaned at him in response, ignoring the affection that pooled inside him.

"Thanks, Jaemin!" Donghyuck said cheerily, turning to leave the cafe with Mark in tow.

"Bye Mark-hyung! Good luck." Jisung's voice called out as the pair stepped outside.

"I'm going to need it." Mark grumbled under his breath, and Donghyuck turned to him with another over the top smile.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading! please leave any comments that you have, and make sure to give this a kudos if you enjoyed it <3


End file.
